Your impact: Connecting campus to the community
The high-impact, service-learning experience puts students out into the community, empowered with real money and reflecting on how to use that support to make a meaningful difference.
This past spring, undergraduate students selected the following to receive grants: Literacy Volunteers of Broome-Tioga Counties and the Broome County Council of Churches to support CHOW hunger-relief programs. Every dollar donated equals five meals given to community members, the council reports.
Master of Public Administration students chose Rise, formerly known as the SOS Shelter, to receive funds raised from Party with a Purpose, an annual event organized by the MPA Graduate Student Organization. Rise helps those who experience or are threatened with domestic violence.
“We got to experience firsthand what it was like to give decently sized sums of money out to the community. I got to better understand how nonprofit organizations function and the different struggles that they go through to do the work that they do. lt felt really good to know that our donation would be helping the organizations to help people. This class helped me consider going into the nonprofit sector in the future, and I feel like I’ve learned a little bit more about the community around campus!”
— Ying Dan Lin ’24
“This gift will make such a difference for the adult literacy learners we serve!” said Kristen Gordon-Pier, executive director of Literacy Volunteers of Broome-Tioga Counties. “Thanks to the support, we’ll be able to strengthen our student programming and tutor training/support services that were severely impacted by COVID-19.”
Learning by doing — You make it happen
The Binghamton experience extends beyond campus, thanks to generous donors. For example, their gifts to the Binghamton Fund and the Harpur Law Alumni Fund help students access learning opportunities all over the world.
This past summer, four Binghamton undergraduate students had crucial financial support to immerse themselves in deeply emotional and challenging, but also rewarding and hopeful, work as interns with the Refugee Rights Hub, based in the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University in England. The hub’s work includes helping an influx of refugees from Ukraine into the United Kingdom.
The interns worked directly with clients, filed paperwork applications with the British home office, saw courts in action and participated in many other activities, said Alexandra Moore, an English professor and co-director of the Human Rights Institute at Binghamton. In addition, the students’ research projects will help future initiatives at the hub.
“They were fulfilling duties that normally would be for graduate students in law or criminology, so it was amazing that they got to work at such an advanced level,” she said.
“My experience at the hub has shown me how to put empathy and compassion into practice when working with clients. Many of our days were filled with face-to-face conversations with clients from areas like Afghanistan, Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several of our clients have told us that simply our presence has made them feel supported in places that are meant to make them feel small. Their accounts have inspired me to pursue refugee and asylum work in my future career.”
— Olivia Vinson ’23
“We have gained a unique perspective by seeing this work at every stage. Overall, my time has been truly unforgettable and made me feel like I’m using what I’ve done in Binghamton to make a positive difference in people’s lives. Working with refugees in this placement has solidified my interest in learning more about the conflicts that have manufactured migration.”
— Maya Tierney ’22
You foster inclusion
Support from the Shamrock Five Foundation made it possible for Services for Students with Disabilities to expand its offerings significantly in 2021. SSD was able to buy two state-of-the-art pieces of equipment to create braille and braille tactile images and purchase additional assistive technology to serve students with other disabilities.
The next generation of leaders, empowered by you
In the Transformational Leaders Program, Torrey Jacobson-Evans ’24 gained keys to unlock doors to opportunities.
“Coming from a background of adversity, finding and connecting with fellow students with similar stories and succeeding in an academic setting can be challenging,” Jacobson-Evans said. “Having that guidance, the people and faculty around you, and those crucial resources to put yourself on a good path and form a sense of community has been the best part of the program.”
With donor support, the three-year program in the School of Management was launched in fall 2021, giving selected students (20 to start, then 25 more in fall 2022) who are underrepresented or facing economic barriers tools to achieve their dreams. Participants gain personal, academic and career development opportunities tailored to their individual needs. Jacobson-Evans plans to work in equity research after graduation and mentor students following a similar career path. “I hope to contribute to the efforts within finance to increase my bank’s diversity and impact within communities.”
“The generosity of our donors has been instrumental to our success with this new initiative. There are people with some unreal potential that just needs to be pulled out of them. We’re helping them do that.” — Jerah Reeves, Transformational Leaders Program coordinator
“This program has opened more doors for me than I could have imagined. I’ve made numerous connections with those in career services, the Dean’s Suite, my peers, and I was able to receive an internship. After graduation, I would ideally like to work in the sports industry as an accountant, but I am very much open to other opportunities and experiences. I just hope to inspire young women to follow their passions when it comes to the business world, because it can be very hard and intimidating always seeing men in such positions. I hope to be able to one day be that doorway or window of opportunity for someone in the position I once was.” — Yuliah Johnson ’25
You help students achieve their full potential
Without the Geraldine and Erin MacDonald Fund for the Support of the Society of Women Engineers, Candace Polisi ’23 and her fellow SWE Binghamton chapter members could have missed out on regional and national conferences, networking with alumni and internship opportunities.
But thanks to Geraldine MacDonald ’68, MS ’73, LittD ’17, who established the fund, Polisi and other students had access to these experiences and more. The chapter also uses the donor support to sponsor community outreach events and industry events such as company info panels, said Polisi, chapter president.
“These events allow us to engage all our members in fun ways, building their professional experiences and our community on campus,” said Polisi, who is in a 4+1 degree program in electrical engineering. She plans to finish her master’s, focused on power, part-time while she works.
